The two Cars films may be Pixar’s worst-reviewed films to date, but the scorn of critics certainly doesn’t stop kids from loving the hell out of Lightning McQueen, Mater, and company. There are Cars-themed lunchboxes, t-shirts, games, even beds — and starting in June, there’ll be a Cars Land as well. Disney has just announced the opening date for the 12-acre attraction, an expansion of Disney California Adventure in Anaheim. Hit the jump for details on the grand opening, as well as pictures and video offering glimpses of the new Cars Land.

Whether you’re a Disney superfan like our own Peter Sciretta or more a casual admirer like myself, it’s hard not to get extremely excited when a whole new world is opening up at one of their theme parks. The next one up is Cars Land, based on the popular Pixar films, which is scheduled to open this June at Disney California Adventure. Though plenty of information has been released about some of the rides and other attractions, a video has now come online featuring Disney Imagineers discussing the creation of this whole new world.

After the jump with a 12-minute making of video for Cars Land. Read More »

This week, Dave, Devindra, and Adam chat about this year’s Oscar nominations and point out how Warner Brothers continues to try and screw over its customers.

You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. There won’t be any live broadcast next week on account of the Super Bowl, but we will be reviewing Chronicle.

Here’s your best indicator yet as to what the crop of nominations for the Best Picture Oscar is likely to be. The Producers Guild of America (PGA) has announced its nominations for 2011 awards, which will be doled out on January 21.

The ten films nominated for the PGA’s top honor include expected pictures such as The Artist, The Descendants and War Horse. There are no real surprises, but the growing Oscar chances for The Help won’t be hurt by getting a PGA nomination (would be slightly wild to see Chris Columbus, a producer on The Help, with an Oscar), and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris makes an appearance on the list, too. There are a couple surprises, though, in the form of Bridesmaids and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — the Judd Apatow and Scott Rudin effects in full force there. With 5-10 Best Picture nominations possible for this year’s Oscars, most of the films in the PGA’s top list are likely to end up in the race.

The full PGA press release, with the full slate of nominations, is below. Documentary and animation nominations are there, too, though the slate of nominations in each category is more or less exactly what you’d expect to see at this point. Read More »

This week, David, Devindra, and Adam discuss the sad business of Brett Ratner’s Oscar-hosting gig, unabashedly praise Alexander Payne’s The Descendants, ponder the bizarre world of Cars, and get excited for new episodes of Arrested Development. Special guest Keith Phipps joins us from AV Club. To read more about the twisted worldof Cars check out Eric D Snider’s and Rachel Mercer’s respective blog posts. Also, check out the AV Club’s awesome podcast, Reasonable Discussions.

You can always e-mail us at slashfilmcast(AT)gmail(DOT)com, or call and leave a voicemail at 781-583-1993. We’ll be reviewing The Muppets and Hugo next week.

In 2010, only 15 films were eligible for the Best Animated Film Oscar. Under the current rules, at least 16 films have to be eligible to have more than three nominees and this year that’s looking likely. Eighteen films have been deemed eligible to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 84rd Annual Academy Awards and it’s a very crowded field. Pixar usually is a sure thing but as their film, Cars 2, underperformed – at least in Pixar terms – that leaves the door open for movies like The Smurfs, Rango, Puss in Boots and Mars Needs Moms. Well, maybe not that last one, but it’s eligible.

After the jump see the full list of eligible animated films and predict which five will get the nomination come January 24, 2012. Read More »

Going to big conventions is a lot of fun until a few days later and you hear what you missed. Recently, this happened at Comic Con when I heard what happened at the Lost panel. Speaking of Lost, that show’s composer, Michael Giacchino, apparently had an amazing panel at the D23 Expo. Which we missed. Giacchino’s panel, The Music of Pixar, unfortunately ran up against Disney’s epic movie panel but, thanks to the magic of YouTube, we can now all watch the Oscar-winning composer talk about his inspiration, and music for, the Pixar films The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up and Cars 2. We’ve got the full panel embedded after the jump. Read More »

For the past seven months, Kees van Dijkhuizen‘s been releasing tribute videos for his yearlong “[the films of]” project, each showcasing the work of a different director via a montage, and we at /Film have been with him since the beginning. For his newest installment, however, van Dijkhuizen chose to go a slightly different route: Rather than select one auteur to focus on, he’s chosen an entire company. Watch “[the films of] Pixar Animation Studios” after the jump.

Poor Mater and McQueen: After a 35% Rotten Tomatoes score gave Cars 2 the unhappy distinction of becoming the worst-reviewed Pixar movie of all time, it is now tracking to earn Pixar’s lowest domestic gross since 1998’s A Bug’s Life. Read on after the jump.

Walt Disney Animation Studios has released a 25 minute documentary titled A Day in the Life of John Lasseter, which follows Pixar Animation Studios as Chief Creative Officer and director of Cars 2 from the moment he wakes up through the end of his work day. The documentary short was shot on March 23rd 2011, at the tail end of production on Cars 2. John is prepping a footage presentation which would be shown a month later at the movie theatre owner convention CinemaCon, approving shots on an iPad, and finding a creative solution which would allow the removal of the word “radiation” from the film due to the then recent incident in Japan. We also get to see John’s Emeryville office, and a glimpse inside his Sonoma Valley house (complete with hidden passageways). Watch the documentary now embedded after the jump.Read More »